Cole
POUGHKEEPSIE – A Dutchess County grand jury indicted a Pleasant Valley man on charges that he strangled his mother to death, kept her body in a motel room they shared with his wife and then drove to South Carolina where they disposed of the victim’s remains.
The body of Betty Cole, 78, was recovered on October 17, 2015 in an area secluded from I-95 in Lodge, South Carolina. Her son and suspect, Charles Cole, 48, was located in a homeless shelter in Poughkeepsie days later.
Police said Cole is believed to have killed his mother and stored her body in their Pleasant Valley Motel room before traveling south and disposing of her remains.
Cole’s wife, Ronalda, was arrested in October and charged with tampering with physical evidence for assisting her husband with transporting and dumping the body.
Charles Cole was charged in the indictment announced Monday with tampering with physical evidence for acting together with his wife in moving and disposing of Betty Cole’s body.
